A survey of mental health nursing staff reveals that more than half think not enough has been done to improve the physical health of those with mental illness.
In 2013, the government committed to ensure equal access to treatment – but around 40% of respondents to the survey agreed that their units were not equipped to respond to their patient’s physical needs.
‘It’s not only a tragedy that people with mental illness die so much earlier than the general population, it’s also scandalous in a modern health service that we still have so far to go,’ said Tim Coupland, programme lead for parity of esteem at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), who carried out the study.
The coalition government under David Cameron pledged to reduce the funding gap between physical and mental health services.
Out of 566 respondents, 97% worked in mental health settings – 75.4% were mental health nurses.
Of the respondents, 37.8% thought their service had been unsuccessful in delivering mental health equality and 71.1% agreed that further training was needed to meet the physical needs of their mental health patients.
One respondent commented: ‘I find it interesting that the suggestion is that mental health workers should increase their skills in physical health.’
‘I don’t object in principle, but I would like those working in physical health to be asked to increase their skills in understanding mental health issues also.’
The RCN have pledged to push for more funding for mental health services and have launched a charter, Equality Well UK, to support and improve physical health for those with severe mental illness.
The charter is backed by more than 50 health and care organisations who have agreed that action must be taken to increase life expectancy for those with mental illness.
In the survey, nursing staff said that in order to make a difference more funding is needed in mental health care as well as improvements to safe staffing of services – the number of mental health nurses have dropped as staff shortages continue to impact all areas of the nursing profession.